Safeco Restructures Top Officers
By Steve Tuckey
NU Online News Service, Sept. 28, 4:00 p.m. EDT?Seattle-based Safeco announced a new leadership structure Monday to take it through what the company terms its post-turnaround phase.[@@]
Current Safeco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mike McGavick will head a three-person "office of the president" that will include Michael LaRocco as co-president responsible for product underwriting and claims; Christine Mead as co-president responsible for service, technology and finance; and a new, yet-to-be-named co-president responsible for marketing, sales and distribution.
"Now that the turnaround is behind us, our greatest challenge is to accelerate organic, profitable growth within our company," said Mr. McGavick.
The announcement follows Safeco's recent sale of its life and investments business and the redefinition of its property-casualty insurance company serving drivers, homeowners, and small and medium-sized businesses.
The moves came after years of sharp underwriting losses that led to the hiring of Mr. McGavick in 2001 to refocus the company. In the second quarter of this year the company reported income per diluted share that nearly doubled the year-ago result. It was also the ninth consecutive quarter the company beat analysts' estimates.
Standard & Poor's analyst Polina Chernyak sees the restructuring as a logical outgrowth of the company's new focus on personal lines and small commercial business.
"They have to match the structure with the business model, which is what they are doing right now," she said.
While Ms. Chernyak said the current turnaround was a major accomplishment, she did note that the period of underwriting losses was during the soft market and the new direction was benefited by the firming property-casualty prices of the past several years.
The company's sale of the life business did pose a risk of putting the company's fortunes solely into the hands of one sector, which can be dangerous, she said.
"But at the same time it was good for senior management to focus on the company's core competencies," Ms. Chernyak commented.
The new structure will take effect on Nov. 3
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.